Moseley were blown away by Cornish Pirates’ impressive firepower, conceding eight tries in a tough day at the Mennaye Field.

They had their moments, particularly in the second half, but three tries in the final ten minutes emphasised the gulf between the top four and bottom four in the Championship table.

Moseley made a disastrous start, conceding a try after only 34 seconds, with Pirates flanker Phil Burgess bursting through before sending centre Matt Hopper racing away down the right touchline.

The visitors managed to snuff out any more Pirates’ opportunities for a time and then enjoyed their best spell of the half.

However, their efforts went unrewarded as full-back Ollie Thomas missed a pretty simple 25-metre penalty chance against his old club.

Pirates began to reassert their authority and two tries in quick succession, both from Moseley mistakes, put them clear.

Winger Rhodri McAtee tore through a splintered defence from 60 metres out after the visitors had knocked on, and five minutes later lock Laurie McGlone ran back Michael Gillick’s poor clearance kick and Burgess finished off, with fly-half Rob Cook converting both for a 19-0 interval lead.

The home onslaught continued after the break with two more tries in 14 minutes – the first by Cook, who then turned creator for Hopper’s second with a sizzling midfield burst, and Cook slotted two conversions.

Moseley responded well and got to within inches of the Pirates’ line only to be penalised for a double movement.

Given fresh impetus by a host of replacements, they continued to batter away and they finally broke their duck when Drew Locke’s missed tackle on Andy Reay provided the chance for replacement Michael Maltman to cross beside the posts, giving Thomas an easy conversion.

They fell apart in the closing stages, though, with a Locke try and two from Burgess to complete his hat-trick bringing up the 50-point mark.